Hey, just a heads up. Early voting for Primary elections starts today and runs until March 3rd. the Primary Election will be held March 7th. Here is your chance to make sure that the people running in the general election share your views.

Very few people vote in the primaries, so your vote makes a huge difference here. One of the reasons Texas has good gun laws is because anti-gun politicians usually don't survive the primary race. Let's keep it that way.

What candidates are Anti- Gun?


Which ones are Against Illeagal Immigration, Lower Property Taxes, and Against Foreign Control of our PORTS.

I really did not get a chance to read who is for what.

Quoted: What candidates are Anti- Gun? Which ones are Against Illeagal Immigration, Lower Property Taxes, and Against Foreign Control of our PORTS. I really did not get a chance to read who is for what.

 You should be able to get some of the information on your county's election department website.  It's interesting to see the different questions on the Democrat and Republican ballots.

 As for finding out which candidates support what.  That's YOUR JOB!  You need to find out on your own so you can decide which candidate YOU ARE VOTING FOR.  

 mm

Here is the 2006 Voter Guide from TSRA (PDF):

www.tsrapac.org/tsravotersguide.pdf

For state level offices TSRA has endorsed the following candidates:

Rick Perry - Governor
David Dewhurst - Lt. Governor
Greg Abbott - Attorney General
Susan Combs - Comptroller
Jerry Patterson - Land Commissioner*
Todd Staples - Agricultural Commissioner
Terry Keel - Court of Criminal Appeals

*Jerry Patterson has been particularly hard core on gun rights as a legislator and has continued to try and open up state land closed to CHLs (like the Colorado River Authority) while serving as land commissioner.

Also worth remembering that Harris County DA, Chuck Rosenthal (who has promised to arrest people with a gun in the car despite the new travelling law) will be up for election as well.

Here is what CLOUT is saying about the Houston area candidates that are for lowering/changing property taxes:


The Following C.L.O.U.T. Endorsements have been made for the March 7th Republican Primary - early voting starts Tuesday Feb 21.  (SD=Senate District, HD=State Representative District)

If you want change in Austin - you have to change the faces of Austin!  This primary will start the Property Tax Revolution in our State Legislature so you must make your vote count!  Vote early - take friends, family, co-workers, and associates to the poll and multiply your vote.  We HAVE to win these primary races to have the impact we want in Austin.

1) SD 3 (Montgomery County to East Texas) - Robert Nichols, He will be a real help in the upcoming budget battles as he really understands the Health and Human Services area of the State Budget. Robert Nichols solidly supports both Appraisal & Spending Caps, and is against the Senate Blocker Bill.

2) SD 7 (West & Northwest Harris County) - Dan Patrick, Our C.L.O.U.T. Conservative Standard Bearer! Dan's stands on property tax reform are well known, and he is for returning state surplus revenues to the Taxpayers. His stand on immigration is changing the course of the political debate, as it is truly time for a change in the Texas Senate by sending Dan to Austin.

3) SD 18 (Ft. Bend to Victoria)  - Glen Hegar, sided with the Taxpayers in the epic fight to release the first Appraisal Cap bill from Fred Hills' Local Ways and Means Committee in 2003. Glen supports doing away with the Senate Blocker Bill as a reform measure.

4)  HD 28 (Ft. Bend to Wharton) - Michael Franks - solid conservative political activist and supporter.  CLOUT has known Mike for years - worked with us on many campaigns.  Mike won't get lost in Austin, he knows what he believes in long before he decided to run for office.

5) HD 73 (Comal County - New Braunfels)  Nathan Macias is a decorated veteran who served our nation for 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. A lifelong conservative, Nathan is committed to serving in Austin to improve education, lower property taxes and make state government more efficient.  His opponent, Carter Casteel, is a big government-big spender who fought us on Appraisal Caps last April in Austin.  CLOUT is strongly supporting Macias and asks you to contact any voter you know in Comal County.  This could be a huge win against the RINO's.  
http://www.nathanmacias.com/

6) HD 133 (Southwest Houston) - Mike Schofield, a long-time Harris County Republican Party Member that moved to Austin recently and worked tirelessly for Pro-Taxpayers causes on the Governor's Staff.  Mike moved back to his home area of west Houston to run for State Representative as the lack of true conservatives in Republican Districts galled him!

7) Harris County Civil Court-at-Law #2 - Jacqueline Lucci Smith, an excellent choice for change in this court to restore Honor and Integrity to this bench occupied by Judge Block. Jacqueline has done great work for the Harris County Tax Office including testifying for in Austin for Property Tax Reform.  Previously she worked in the County Attorney's office for both Mike Stafford and Mike Flemming.  


"VOTE YES" on all four GOP Ballot Propositions!
by: Hon. Paul Bettencourt
\
Republicans all across Texas have the chance to cast their votes for four excellent Ballot Propositions during the Tuesday, March 7th Primary Election. These four non-binding ballot propositions were proposed by State Republican Party Chair, Tina Benkiser, and I had the chance to testify for them in committee before the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) Members approved each one unanimously.

My experience tells me that is is high time to get the Republican Party back to basic grassroots concepts like stopping voter fraud, protecting your property from governmental seizures for economic gain only, slowing the growth of all governmental revenues that are going up twice as fast as needed across the state, and keeping homeowners taxes from "going through the roof" across the State of Texas!

Prop 1 calls for a "Photo ID" to vote in any Texas election.  VOTE YES!

Prop 2 provides "Private Property Protection" against the terrible Supreme Court ruling last year allowing purely economic based seizures of private property, your home for example!   VOTE YES!

Prop 3 sets a "Spending Cap" limit on all government's ability to ask for more revenue to the sum of their district's yearly population growth and the area's inflation rate.  VOTE YES!

Prop 4 is a resolution to lower the existing "Appraisal Cap" from 10% to 5% or less.  This change will save Texas Homeowners hundreds of dollars a year even if property tax rates stay the same from year to year.  This has been the core of our Property Tax Reform movement and this resolution must pass by the widest margins possible to set the stage or change in Austin!  VOTE YES!

As you can tell these four non-binding Ballot Propositions deserve your vote, as they will tell every Republican Elected Official from the Red River to the Rio Grande how you feel about each issue as a member of the Texas Majority Party! Don't miss a Grand Old Party opportunity by joining your "Taxman" and Voting "YES" on all these Ballot Propositions March the 7th.

Vote Conservative, Vote "YES" Props 1 thru 4!

TAG!
i'll vote tomorrow

Hey Bartholomew, thanks for posting the link to TSRA's Voter's Guide.  I remember we all had this conversation a few months back.

The LWV Voter's Guide got passed around at a mtg this morning, and I felt like I had to show this one to my fellow arfcommers:

Governor:

Republican Candidates:

Larry Kilgore:

Q: Training & experience
A: I read the Bible, praise the Lord, listen to good preaching, study history and ask God for wisdom.

Q: School finance
A: The support for Government schools (public schools) will collapse just like the support for Marxism collapsed in the East.  It'll probably happen in a Big Whoosh, just like the fall of the Berlin Wall.  When this occurs, government will no longer need to steal money from the taxpayers to fund the pubic [sic] school money pit.

Q: Border protection & immigration enforcement:
A: The immigration problem fundamentally is a welfare state problem.  Some illegal immigrants, certainly not all, receive housing subsidies, food stamps, free medical care, free school and other forms of welfare.  Once the freebies are gone, freeloaders will not come.  Anyone that crosses our border illegally should receive a minimum of five lashes, $3000 fine and deportation.

Q: Role of governor in disaster planning, evacuation, in event of disaster
A: War is the disaster that we need to be most prepared for.  Our citizens need to be well armed.  Volunteer militia organizations and sheriffs need to work with the Texas Nat'l Guard to prepare for conventional, biological, chemical and nuclear attack scenarios.  Our war plans will serve as natural disaster evacuation plans also.


Star Locke:

Q: Training & experience
A: As a U.S. Army Veteran and Rancher/Builder, I am a non-politician experienced in agriculture and construction to deal with most family issues.  Like you all, I too experience daily having lived under these oppressive taxes and controls of government.  I am just [like?] you - [a?] working slob trying to pay bills.

Q: School finance
A: No more property tax.  Founding fathers told us... "the power to tax is the power to destroy."  We tax things we don't want in our society.  Taxes on TV violence, and taxes on items ruining our children's health - obesity, surgared added cola drinks, video-games + "recyclable deposit incentives" are more than enough.  Property taxes are kill everyone!!  visit www.starovertexas.com for details.

Q: Border protection & immigration enforcement:
A: Past 5 years, the highest immigrations in US. history - 8,000,000 million [sic] today 35,200,000 immigrants 45%+ kids who live in poverty this has enormous implications for the social and economic integration into American society.  No nation has ever attempted to incorporate more than 35 million newcomers into its society.  No more immigrations.  Friendly Jewish Christian visitors and a fair "guestworker pass" will not hurt Texas.  I will assist Mexican governors with the drug dealers eradication, visit www.starovertexas.com.

Q: Role of governor in disaster planning, evacuation, in event of disaster
A: Living on the Gulf I realize that each individual must be prepared with his/her own plan and supplies.  Cities and hwy are not designed for this mass exedous [sic].  The National Guard is the only proven reliable stability in emergencies.  Stockpiling fuel on exit routes + mobile gas pumps would help escape but self-reliance as Texan pioneers did..... is your best bet.

Gotta love those colorful Texas pols!

Also worth noting that Terry Keel, who is running as a judge for the Court of Criminal Appeals, was the author of the new state travelling law that makes it OK to carry a gun in your car without a CHL. It never hurts to have firearms-friendly judges in place.

Quoted: Also worth noting that Terry Keel, who is running as a judge for the Court of Criminal Appeals, was the author of the new state travelling law that makes it OK to carry a gun in your car without a CHL. It never hurts to have firearms-friendly judges in place.

Yeah, on the one hand, I was hoping he'd have run for something bigger/higher, but I [personally] don't think it would have been worth the risk to have him unelected and out of the game entirely for a whole session.

I went to the courthouse today and voted.

I choose to vote in the Democrat primaries, as the local republican primaries didnt have too much competition in it, most of them were unoposed, while the local democrat primaries had plenty of action.

Anyways I voted against the incumbant county comissioners, since this last year they gave themselves a nice fat payraise that they didnt deserve, and I also checked out the TSRA's voters guide to vote for the more pro-gun democrats.

www.tsra.com/votersguide.html

On the ballot it also had two propositions.

Proposition 1:
Do you support lifting millions of families above
the national poverty line by increasing the state
minimum wage above its current level of $5.15
per hour?

Proposition 2:
Do you support the restoration of Texans' full
rights to a trial by jury in civil cases?

I voted against the 1st one, raising the minimum wage does nothing to fight poverty and only hurts those that make more than minimum wage (mostly everyone).

I voted for the 2nd one. However I thought we already have a right to trial by jury in lawsuits? Is that not the case?

Quoted: Prop 1 calls for a "Photo ID" to vote in any Texas election.  VOTE YES!

When I checked out the sample ballot for the Republican primaries, I did think they had interesting propositions, I would have voted for all of them except for this one.

I personally dont like the idea of being required to carry and show ID in order to exercise your rights.

IMO a voter registration card should be all that is required to vote, when I voted today that is all I needed to show and that is the way it should be.

OFFascist,

I've often considered voting Dem in the primaries, if only to bring the Dems closer to center (or where I want them to be).  If enough people get together to knock the anti-gun Dems out in the primaries, soon Dems will learn that being anti is like having a big target on their back.  Pretty soon, most serious Dem candidates would be pro-2A and pro-RKBA.  (at least in theory)

That would force the Repub candidates to find other ways to separate themselves from the rest.

If we move the whole field to the right on 2A/RKBA, we could start having some other, better (?) choices in other areas.